Category Archives: Organisational Culture

How do you build successful sustainable performance? Focus on the commitment of your employees. Commitment to an organization arises when the organization provides employees with opportunities to satisfy their needs and desires.1

The needs and desires of employees are determined by the stage of psychological development they are at and the needs of the stages of development they have passed through but have not yet mastered. In other words, commitment arises when employees are able to get their survival, safety and security needs met, and when their work gives them a sense of meaning—when they can meet their desire for self-expression, connection and contribution.

Commitment to the organization is enhanced when the leaders, managers and supervisors embrace democratic principles, treat employees as equals, listen to what employees have to say, deal with employees fairly, and give employees opportunities and challenges to grow and develop both professionally and personally. Commitment is further enhanced when employees believe the leaders, managers and supervisors care about them and their families, and care about the local community in which they live. Commitment continues to increase when they feel they can trust the organization, its leaders, managers and supervisors to always do the right thing.

The bottom line on commitment is this: When you feel a sense of commitment to an organization, you identify with it; and whatever you identify with you care about. However, you will only feel a sense of commitment to an organization if you feel supported by that organization in meeting your needs.

Bob Chapman, CEO of the $1.7 billion manufacturing company Barry-Wehmiller, has created a world-class company with off-the-charts moral, loyalty, creativity and business performance by adopting the principles outlined above. The company rejects the idea that employees are simply functions to be moved around, “managed” with carrots and sticks, or discarded at will. Instead, Barry-Wehmiller manifests the reality that every single person matters, just like a family.2

How does commitment show up?

You can recognize commitment in an organization in the following ways.

At the first level of consciousness (survival), commitment shows up as willingness to do what is necessary (legally) to secure the financial stability and health of the organization, and the health and safety of employees.

At the second level of consciousness (relationship), commitment shows up as a deeply engrained loyalty—a steadfastness of belief in the organization and its leaders and what they are attempting to do—and as heartfelt connection and camaraderie among employees.

At the third level of consciousness (self-esteem), commitment shows up as a willingness on the part of employees to go the extra mile whenever it is necessary. When employees are committed, they bring their discretionary energy to their work.

At the fourth level of consciousness (transformation), commitment shows up as a willingness to adapt and change—let go of old habits and change who you are, change how you operate, and change how you do what you do for the benefit of yourself, your subordinates and the organization. Commitment also shows up at this level of consciousness as a willingness to try new ideas, take risks and innovate.

At the fifth level of consciousness (internal cohesion) commitment shows up as passion for your work and enhanced creativity.

At the sixth level of consciousness commitment shows up as a deeply held desire to connect with others so you can make a difference in the world.

At the seventh level of consciousness commitment shows up as devotion to selfless service—a profound sense of interconnectedness, a focus on the common good, and the desire to leave a legacy.

Continuous transformation

Whilst all these aspects of commitment are important, the most important is the ability and willingness to adapt—continuous transformation. The most successful organisms and species have always been those that learned how to adapt to their changing environments. Evolution has never been an exercise in long-term, strategic planning; it has always been an exercise in emergent learning.2 Emergent learning along with a predilection and facility for adaptation lies at the core of all successful evolution and cultural transformation.3, 4

Successful organisms have always evolved by making continuous real-time adjustments to their way of being based on feedback from their internal and external environments. This is why organizations that display a high level of internal cohesion are able to survive and prosper more easily than those that do not. The interpersonal connectedness that arises from internal cohesion enables an organization to act as a single organism, thereby facilitating emergent learning, adaptation and agility. The key factor in creating internal cohesion is interpersonal trust.

This means that the most successful organizations in the twenty-first century will be those that not only understand how to build internal cohesion, but are structurally agile enough to adapt to the changing needs of society and the changing needs of the market place. They will be working with free-form, flexible organizational structures that create high levels of employee engagement and empower people to focus their energies on innovation and continuous renewal.

The role of the leaders, managers and supervisors will be to create a values-driven culture based on democratic principles and create working conditions that support employees in meeting their deficiency and growth needs—thereby engendering high levels of employee engagement. When the culture and working conditions are right, employees will bring their hearts and souls to their work and release their creative and discretionary energies.

Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey call such organizations “deliberately developmental”. A deliberately developmental organization is organized around the simple but radical conviction that an organization will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with people’s strongest motive, which is to grow. This means going beyond consigning “people development” to high-potential staff. It means fashioning an organizational culture where supporting people’s development is woven into the fabric of working life and the company’s regular operations, daily routines and conversations.5

In addition to caring about the needs of employees, the successful twenty-first-century organization will also care about the needs of the organization’s external stakeholders—customers, suppliers, investors and the local communities and societies in which they operate.6

To achieve all these objectives, the leader of the organization will need to: (a) build an inspiring vision and a purposeful mission for the organization that goes beyond making money; (b) manage the values of the organization by getting regular feedback from employees, customers, suppliers and society at large about how the organization can meet their needs; (c) manage his/her way of being/operating by getting regular feedback from colleagues and direct reports about how they can change their way of being/operating to enhance the performance of the organization; and (d) require that the directors, managers and supervisors in the organization do the same.

In summary, in order to be successful in the twenty-first century, the leaders of organizations will need to embrace a new leadership paradigm—a shift in focus from “I” to “we”; from “what’s in it for me” to “what’s best for the common good”; and from “being the best in the world” to “being the best for the world.”7

3 See George E. Vaillant, Adaptation to Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 1977, which traces the history of 100 Harvard graduates to determine the key factors that led to their success or failure in life.

4 See also Richard Barrett, The New Leadership Paradigm (Asheville, NC: Fulfilling Books), 2011, p. 21 for the results of the study of Harvard graduates cited in the previous reference.

On the 7th of October I recorded a seminar with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein from the Centre for Integral Wisdom discussing my new book The Metrics of Human Consciousness. The book will be published early in the new year. You can hear the discussion with Mark and Zak by clicking here.

Early in the seminar, Lesley Freeman, who introduces the speakers refers to a paper (the book) which you can find by clicking here.

Want to find out what conscious capitalism is about and hear about some of the guidelines for implementation, then you may want to consider attending this event in London on the evening of November 4th. Follow this link (click here) to find out more.

To build a strong team there has to be a high level of trust. Trust is the glue that holds people together and the lubricant that allows energy and passion to flow. In short, trust builds internal cohesion. This article provides an easy step by step process for building trust in your team.

In this series of links you will find a wealth of information about building a values-driven culture.

The first link is to a Webinar I gave in July 2013 to launch my book The Values-Driven Organisation: Unleashing human potential for performance and profit. You can view the Webinar by clicking here and download this presentation by clicking here .

If you would like even more depth, then you can listen to the dialogues that I have done with David Gibbons on The Values-Driven Organisation by clicking here and going to the June archives. You can also listen to the dialogues on I Tunes.

Finally, for a brief overview of measuring culture and the Cultural Transformation Tools you can click here.

The Portuguese version of the book will be available in Brazil in August.

The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (CIIA) said yesterday they want sweeping new powers covering behaviour in all parts of businesses, as well as the traditional role of monitoring finances (click here for details).

“On the basis that what gets measured gets done, companies must take seriously the need to audit their progress in addressing the need for change,” said boss Ian Peters.

This is good news for all those involved in the business of cultural transformation and measuring cultures.

Watch this video if you want to find out how to measure culture, and then for more information about the Cultural Transformation Tools click here.

The Values-driven Organisation can be purchased by clicking here and you can follow the broadcast series about the book by clicking here.

Based on significant new research from multiple sources, Richard Barrett creates a compelling narrative about why values-driven organizations are the most successful organizations on the planet. According to Barrett, understanding employees’ needs—what people value—is the key to creating a high performing organization. When you support employees in satisfying their needs, they respond with high levels of employee engagement—they willingly bring their commitment and creativity to their work.

Work occupies a central place in our society and in the lives of all working people. It is vital in both the literal and figurative senses.

When the focus is exclusively on growth and profit at any cost, this gradually leads to denial of human complexity and meaning.
This is why work suffers from an overall negative image and from stubborn prejudices that tarnish it.
The present tendencies at the levels of ethics and economics, illustrated by inappropriate work practices that too often lead to depression or even suicide, are the cause of increasing indignation in the population, but also of realizations that it is becoming urgent to change course.

If the destructive aspects are quite widely reported, this is not true for the positive and constructive aspects of work.

Yet knowledge about this subject is progressing, but still remains in the shadows.
Discoveries about the brain, its functioning, its architecture, and neuronal plasticity, are very important and offer encouraging perspectives, particularly for stress management and for mental control. And thirst for values and meaning in connection with work is growing.

The objectives of the Conference may be described in this way:

To build a reflexion from very different viewpoints such as the impact of the medical discoveries (neuroscience), among others, on stress-reduction of managers.

To evaluate the impact of the so called “spiritual” and “lay” values emerging nowadays (independent from religions) on managers, decision-makers, and leaders in various fields, linked to the need of meaning, ethics, respect of the person…

This is why it is aimed at the leaders, businessmen, human resource managers, politicians, social partners, scientists, health care professionals, students, journalists, consultants and all people open to these questions. Click here to find out more.

I was invited to speak and fully intended going, but they decided to do it on the week I am getting married!

In the case studies included in this document, you will learn about the journey of cultural transformation in three organisations—Old Mutual Group, Volvo IT and Unilever Brazil. We chose these organisations because they represent different regions of the world and different approaches. There is not just one way, but many ways, to successfully work with your culture. However, it is always important at the start of a culture change initiative to measure the culture, and after you have made some changes, to measure again to see the impact.